Since 2004, The Cecilia J. Lauby Teacher Education Center at Illinois State University has been helping teacher education candidates and faculty across the entire university with teacher education questions and licensure requirements. Amid the current COVID-19 crisis, the center is even more at the forefront of supporting our students and staff.
Even before spring break and the announcement of remote learning at the University and across the state, the Lauby Center staff have been working to prepare for the myriad of changes, to help teacher education students graduate on time, and to secure placements for future semesters. At the time of this writing, we do not know what the fall semester will entail, but the Lauby Center has employed a variety of tactics to help students and faculty complete the spring semester from afar and prepare for the future.
PBA (Performance Based Assessment)
Starting in mid-March, the PBA workshop was redesigned to be 100 percent online while campus is closed. The workshop now has two parts, a Zoom presentation that covers requirements and then a short follow-up assignment in which students create their ELIS (Educator Licensure System) account and send account information, along with signed paperwork to the PBA staff. So far, reviews have been positive with roughly 200 students completing the requirement in the last month.
Tuberculosis (TB) tests
Students are required to submit proof of a recent TB vaccination for future student teaching semesters and early childhood clinicals. Most students bring a copy into the office. Since the offices are closed, students are unable to securely drop off their TB test to meet milestone requirements. To improve security, staff set up a SendTo.IllinoisState.edu link for students to send their TB test results to staff directly and securely.
ATLAS (Accomplished Teaching, Learning, and Schools)
One of the resources that the Lauby Center shared with teacher education faculty was ATLAS, an online tool that helps students learn educational theories and pedagogy outside the P-12 classroom.
ATLAS, a product of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, is a database of teaching cases from National Board-certified teachers aimed at demonstrating excellent teaching. Each case contains a video of the lesson, a detailed explanation from the teacher, lesson goals, an analysis, and a reflection to improve the lesson. All cases are organized by content area, grade level, and topic.
If you are interested in gaining access to this resource, please contact Laurie Sexton at lasext2@ilstu.edu.
Communication
The Lauby Center staff also handles all teacher education requirement communications for the entire campus. The staff is constantly in contact with state agencies and is working to update students and faculty as soon as they have information regarding licensure requirements.
Staff has spent countless hours answering hundreds of student emails each week over the past couple of months. They are working hard to disseminate the most accurate information for students and to alleviate any concerns about graduation and student teaching.
If you receive any questions from students concerning general teacher education questions or licensure, please direct them to one of the Lauby Center’s email aliases. The Lauby Center should be the primary staff answering these questions to ensure consistent and accurate messages
- teacheredcenter@IllinoisState.edu – General center email for student questions and to send in milestone documents. Also available for advisors and faculty to send questions concerning milestones and teacher education items.
- clinicalquestions@IllinoisState.edu – General center email for student questions concerning clinical hour documentation. Also available for faculty with documentation questions.
- pbaquestions@IllinoisState.edu – General center email for questions concerning the PBA workshop or general milestone questions (can also send to teacheredcenter@IllinoisState.edu )
Many kudos are in order to the whole Lauby Center staff for working diligently to change procedures, policies, etc. and keeping students and faculty informed about the numerous changes happening at the state level.
